United Launch Alliance celebrate 75 launch milestone

The United Launch Alliance (ULA) celebrated its 75 launch milestone when their Atlas V launch vehicle successfully lofted the AEHF-3 satellite out of Cape Canaveral Wednesday morning. While its successes with payloads such as military satellites continue, the company is also a front runner in the effort of returning America’s domestic crew launch capability in the second half of this decade.

ULA Milestone:

The company was formed at the end of 2006 as a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. The merger consolidated all production and engineering capability into their bases in Decatur, Alabama and Littleton, Colorado.

ULA’s first launch occurred two weeks after the company was formed, with a Delta II undertaking the NROL-21 mission to orbit USA-193 for the United States National Reconnaissance Office on 14 December 2006. Despite being placed into orbit successfully the spacecraft failed immediately after launch.

On 21 February 2008, shortly before it was expected to reenter, USA-193 was destroyed by a RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) launched from the USS Lake Eire in the Pacific Ocean.

The test, which came thirteen months after China had tested an antisatellite weapon, was claimed to be in an effort to ensure that the satellite’s hydrazine propellant would burn up in the atmosphere and not cause contamination should the spacecraft have reentered over land.

The payload of ULA’s second launch fared better. On 17 February 2007, a Delta II was used to deploy NASA’s THEMIS mission. Consisting of five spacecraft in highly elliptical orbits, THEMIS studied the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth’s magnetosphere. Two THEMIS spacecraft have since been placed into orbit around the moon, for an extended mission named ARTEMIS.

The first Atlas launch to be conducted by United Launch Alliance occurred in March 2007, with an Atlas V 401 carrying out the STP-1 mission, orbiting a collection of small research satellites. The primary spacecraft were DARPA’s Orbital Express prototypes, ASTRO and NEXTSAT, which demonstrated on-orbit docking and servicing. The rocket also deployed the STPSat-1, CFESAT, MidSTAR-1 and FalconSAT-3 research satellites for various parts of the US military.

Although ULA does not offer commercial launch services, Boeing and Lockheed Martin subcontract commercial Delta II and Atlas V launches to the organisation. The first commercial mission came in June 2007, with a Delta II lofting COSMO-SkyMed 1 for the Italian Ministry of Defence.

A faulty valve caused the Centaur to leak oxidiser during its coast phase, and as a result the stage’s second burn ended prematurely, leaving the satellites, a pair of Intruder (NOSS) signals intelligence satellites, in a lower than planned orbit. The spacecraft were still useable, and could correct their own orbit.

The first Delta IV launch under United Launch Alliance was the first operational flight of the Delta IV Heavy configuration, carrying the final Defense Support Program satellite; USA-197. Launched in November 2007, the Delta IV successfully inserted its payload directly into geosynchronous orbit; however within a year the spacecraft had stopped working.

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Three launches in December 2007 saw COSMO-SkyMed 2 placed into low Earth orbit by a Delta II flying from Vandenberg and an NRO Quasar (SDS) communications satellite placed into molniya orbit by an Atlas V from Cape Canaveral, before a Delta II made ULA’s thirteenth and last launch of the year, orbiting another GPS satellite.

By comparison, 2008 was a quieter year for ULA, with only seven launches. The first of the year was the NROL-28 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office; conducted by an Atlas V on its first launch from Vandenberg.

In April ULA’s first commercial Atlas launch saw ICO G1 successfully placed into geosynchronous transfer orbit, however an anomaly with a first stage actuator kept the Atlas grounded for the rest of the year. No Delta IV launches were conducted thanks to constant delays to the NROL-26 mission scheduled to fly from Cape Canaveral, and work at Vandenberg to prepare Space Launch Complex 6 for the Delta IV Heavy.

After the quiet 2008, 2009 remains ULA’s busiest year to date. Sixteen launches were conducted; eight by Delta II, five by Atlas V, and three by Delta IV. The year began with NROL-26 finally departing, three years behind schedule, atop a Delta IV Heavy. Renamed USA-202 in orbit, the spacecraft has been identified by amateur observers as an Orion signals intelligence satellite.

The year’s other Delta IV launches carried the NOAA’s GOES-14 weather satellite and the WGS-3 military communications satellite, using the Medium+(4,2) and Medium+(5,4) configurations respectively.

The eight Delta II launches deployed the NOAA-19 weather satellite, three STSS missile tracking satellites – two of which flew aboard the same rocket, two GPS satellites, the WorldView-2 commercial imaging spacecraft and NASA’s Kepler and WISE space telescopes.

“The successful launch was the 75th since ULA was formed nearly seven years ago, the 40th Atlas V mission, and the fourth ULA launch in the last two months,” added Jim Sponnick, ULA vice president, Atlas and Delta Programs.

“The ULA team and our many mission partners emphasize a one-launch-at-a-time focus on mission success along with a strong commitment to continuous improvement – these elements together are the keys to launching our customer’s missions successfully at this unprecedented tempo in a reliable and cost-effective manner.”

ULA is expected to conduct three more launches by the end of the year, with October involving a Delta IV launch with a GPS navigation satellite for the US Air Force, followed the next month by an Atlas V launching a flagship mission for NASA, setting sail with the Mars-bound MAVEN spacecraft.

A December Atlas launch from Vandenberg will carry NROL-39 for the National Reconnaissance Office – which is expected to be a Topaz radar imaging bird.

The goal of human rating the Atlas V would allow the rocket to return to one of its early roles, with its rich history ranging back to the early days of US space flight. It was an Atlas booster that launched John Glenn into space inside Friendship 7 in 1962, sending the first American into orbit around the planet.